The Pittsburgh Press (September 14, 1941)
U.S. SHIP DAMAGED IN SUEZ RAID
Details vague on new blow at free seas
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President considers plans for arms speed-up during cruise
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By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
Washington, Sept. 13 –
The State Department announced late today another American freighter, the SS Arkansan, has been hit by “shell fragments” in the Red Sea area and has been damaged.
The dispatches mentioned no casualties aboard the Arkansan, the State Department said, but many additional details of the incident, which occurred in the Egyptian port of Suez during a heavy air raid the night of Sept. 11, are lacking.
The Arkansan, like the Steel Seafarer, which was sunk by bombs at the entrance of the Gulf of Suez the night of Sept. 5, was an American flagship and was presumed to be carrying materials to the Allied forces in the Middle East. The Arkansan was owned by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. of San Francisco and New York.
Phrase questioned
The official State Department language describing the incident was that the vessel was:
…reported to have been hit by shell fragments and some plates pierced in a heavy air raid over Suez.
The use of the phrase “shell fragments” was questioned by correspondents here. A State Department official said this was the language used in the dispatch from the American legation at Cairo.
The attack occurred the same evening that President Roosevelt delivered his historic radio address in which he announced he had ordered the Navy to shoot on sight Axis warcraft interfering on American defense routes. Due to the time differential, the air raid over Suez would have preceded the President’s address by several hours.
Terms are puzzle
The Cairo dispatch was not sent by a military expert and he might have used the term “shell fragments” as synonymous with “bomb fragments.” He possibly could have referred to the splinters of an aerial torpedo. It was possible he referred to fragments from anti-aircraft shells fired by the defenders, although experts here said spent shrapnel would not be likely to pierce a ship’s plates.
The official reports did not mention the nationality of the attacking planes. Earlier in the afternoon, the State Department announced receipt of affidavits from Port Said that the plane that bombed the Steel Seafarer was German.
The Arkansan was an old freighter. She was built in 1921 and had a gross tonnage of 6,997 tons.
President cruises
News of this latest attack on American shipping came while President Roosevelt was cruising on Chesapeake Bay with his chief war production aides. While they worked on plans to speed the flow of armaments to the anti-Axis arsenal, the American Navy made dispositions to purge Atlantic defense routes of raiding warcraft.
The next three or four days, informed quarters predicted, should bring some information as to the effectiveness of the U.S. Atlantic patrol in carrying out its shoot-on-sight orders against any Axis interloper.
Some time is necessary, it was explained, to transform, if such a move is necessary, a purely scouting patrol into task force to ferret out submarines and surface raiders.
Keeps close touch
Mr. Roosevelt was keeping on close touch with the Navy and State Departments as he sailed in the presidential yacht Potomac now in wartime gray paint. It was assumed that he was advised during the afternoon of receipt of a cable by the State Department that the third officer aboard the American freighter Steel Seafarer, bombed and sunk in the Red Sea a week ago Friday night, had identified the attacking airplane was German.
The President’s attention was centered on means of stepping up war production. He was said to be very much aware that the arms program is not moving ahead fast enough to be thoroughly satisfactory; that his advisers feel there has been too much superimposing programs on one another and that new arms orders must go to firms which never have made weapons.
Mr. Roosevelt may be studying the reported recommendation that he redefine the authority of Director General William S. Knudsen of the Office of Production Management to enable Knudsen to take the initiative in a greater spread of contracts.
Cruise party
These matters, it was presumed, would be taken up with Mr. Knudsen, Floyd Odlum, head of the new defense contract distribution service; Price Control Chief Leon Henderson, and Lend-Lease Chief Harry L. Hopkins. Those men were aboard the Potomac, as was Mr. Hopkins’ daughter, Diana.
News of the second American-owned freighter under the Panama flag to be sunk in Icelandic waters caused some discussion of the advisability of arming merchant ships. Informed officials discounted suggestions that any such action was likely soon. The nation does not have the guns to spare and few of the older ships are suitable for such installations without major alterations.
The matter was discussed at Mr. Roosevelt’s conference with Congressional leaders Thursday. One of the conferees brought up the subject and it was said that Mr. Roosevelt did not dismiss the possibility that her might consider arming merchant ships in the future. He gave no intimation that such a step is being considered now. Arming merchant ships would require a change in the Neutrality Act.
Commenting on the report, Senator Guy M. Gillette (D-IA), an isolationist member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that in view of the President’s freedom of the seas policy it would be “folly” not to arm merchantmen.
Senator Gillette was critical of the President’s new naval defense policy. He said such a revision of foreign policy should have been preceded by:
…an appeal by the President to the Congress for repeal of various sections of the Neutrality Act.
Senator Gillette was also critical of transferring American ships to Panama or other registry.
Senator Gillette said:
These transfers were affected by an administrative agency to circumvent the intent of the Neutrality Act. Then. when one of them is sunk, there is a terrific furore, even if the ship does not fly the American flag or have American seamen aboard.